One Giant Leap for Monopolies: Spectrum, SpaceX, and the FCC's Public Interest Paradox

Repeated like a drumbeat throughout the Communications Act of 1934 (1934 Act) is Congress’s directive that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or the agency) act in the “public interest” when regulating interstate and international communications. Efforts to define this imprecise mandate have fueled nearly a century of legislative, judicial, and regulatory debate. While some contend that the genius behind the standard’s inherent vagueness is its far-reaching flexibility, thus allowing the FCC to evolve alongside the ever-changing telecommunications industry, others criticize the legislation as supplying the FCC with a vast mandate to invoke a broad standard that obscures the agency’s mission and sets it up to fail.